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Spellcards
Introduction Spellcards are a recurring theme in the Touhou series. The spellcard functionality in SWR is borrowed from SWR's prequel game IaMP, however in SWR they are selected, gained, and used entirely differently. Cards are now divided into three categories: Spell Cards, Skill Cards, and System Cards. Decks Decks are located in your profile and are divided by character. For each character deck you are allowed to choose up to 20 cards to fill your deck with, but you can only have a maximum of 4 of any duplicate card. Because spellcards are chosen from your deck at random during a match, adding more than one of the same type of card increases the odds it will show up. Example: you have a better chance of getting a card if you have 4 of them in your deck, than you do if you've only placed 1 of them in your deck. The optimal card selection for your deck will depend a lot on your playstyle and perhaps even who you're fighting against. With the release of the Touhou 12.3 expansion, players can now create up to four decks per profile. This makes it easier to quickly switch decks between battles without having to switch profiles. These deck names are Happy (green), Angry (red), Sad (blue), and Calm (yellow). Drawing Cards During the fight, you'll draw cards in a similar way you'd fill a super bar in other fighting games: each of the 5 card slots is filled in order, each representing a super bar level. Once one has been completely filled, it becomes a deck card, and the next slot will start filling. There are three main ways of filling the card slots: connecting hits, spending spirit, and having the opponent connect hits on you. The last one barely fills the card gauge, so it can't be relied on, since the opponent gains too much card advantage from it. The first and second ones draw cards much faster, but they work slightly differently: Connecting hits (blocked or unblocked) fills the gauges rather fast, with an amount that seems proportional to the attack's base damage. Howerver, the drawing speed for the last two cards is scaled down by 70% and 50% respectively. Spending spirit will fill a constant fraction of the card gauge, invariable even on the 4th and 5th card slots. Also, the bullets or skill used will also fill in the gauge with the first method should they connect. So, in most cases, combos and blockstrings are best for filling the first three card slots, and zoning is best for the 4th and 5th card slots. This should be considered when deckbuilding: i.e. a deck based on strong pressure will rely on many skill/system cards and lvl1-3 spellcards to keep the hand size low and assist in guardcruches. Casting Cards Spellcards all have a casting cost which is indicated in the Deck menu. Each character has a maximum of 5 stocks of spellcard in their reserve which begin empty. During the course of gameplay, you will accrue meter (in the first empty stock) by attacking and getting hit. Once the meter fills up fully, you will gain a spellcard at random from your deck in your stock and the next empty stock will begin to fill. In order to use a spellcard, you must first meet certain requirements. Each spellcard has a casting cost which can be seen in the Deck menu. In game the costs are visually represented by the gold glowing border around the number of cards that the currently selected card costs. Thus, the number of cards besides itself which it consumes is the cost of the card. Generally speaking, all System Cards and all Skill Cards have a casting cost of 1, meaning it will consume itself, Spell Cards will vary from 1-5 in casting cost relative on how powerful or useful the attack is. During battle, you may cycle through your stocks by pressing A+B to pick which spellcard you wish to use. This can be done at anytime including when the character is knocked down. Once you have made a decision, press B+C to use the spellcard. Once a card is used, it is consumed for the remainder of the match. Because of this, it can be important to cycle your reserve so that you don't accidentally consume a useful card. Note that you can only cycle the reserve in one direction, and you always consume cards in order from outward to inward, and new cards are always gained in the most outward available slot. Still, cycling your reserve before gaining a new card in a slot can help to separate valuable cards from one another. For example: :: ® (G) (B) In the above scenario, the G card will always come after the R card, and if the R card costs two then it will consume both the R and the G. If you were to wait until just before gaining a new card to cycle the R card to the last position, you can separate the R from the G once you've gained a new card, as follows: :: (G) (B) ® : then: ::(G) (B) ® (Y) :and then cycle to reorder: ::® (Y) (G) (B) The result is now your R card is back to being the currently selected card for casting, but rather than also consuming your G card, you have separated the two with the newly gained Y card. Card Types Spell Cards Spell Cards are traditional "Super Move" type attacks and have a very large variety of effects. Some are quite useful, while others not so much. Refer to the individual character sections to learn about specific spellcards. Skill Cards Skill Cards are a unique design to SWR. Each character comes with 4 "default" skill cards that are associated with the 4 special moves your character has from the start. These will increase the attack power or improve the effects of special moves depending on your character and card. In addition to these, there are Alternate Skill cards (alt.skill cards) that overwrite your character's normal special move set. Characters have different amounts of alt.skill cards that have a variety of different effects. Casting an alt.skill card during a match will swap the default special with the new special type, and increase it to level 1. For example, if you use Reimu's Alt.Skill Card "Youkai Buster", which has an input of 236B/C. From then on, when you input 236B/C, you will use Youkai Buster instead of the Hakurei Amulet. If you use "Youkai Buster" again, it will power up to Lv2. However, if you use the Skill card "Hakurei Amulet", 236BC will revert back to Hakurei Amulet. Skill cards and Alt.Skill cards max out at level 4. Their usefulness and how they level up per use is entirely dependent on each specific card, so experimentation is required to determine each card's uses. With the expansion of Touhou 12.3, skill cards now activate the B version of their respective skills upon usage. For example, using the "Youkai Buster" card will make Reimu use Youkai Buster (236B), in addition to leveling it. This opens up more combo possibilities, as it is now possible to use two skills back to back, even if they both have the same input (Hakurei Amulet -> Youkai Buster, for example). Additionally, it is now possible to use a skill card in the air if the skill it represents can be used in the air. Note that, if a direction key is held while a skill card is being activated, the skill WILL NOT be activated and your character will level the skill without moving (just like in SWR). This cancellation does not apply to skill cards being used in the air, as those will activate the skill regardless of whether or not a direction key is held. Hisouten System Cards System Cards include things like defensive bombs and weather-based cards. SWR only. Hisoutensoku System Cards With the expansion of Touhou 12.3, the system cards have been completely revamped. There are now 20 system cards in the game, each representing one of the 20 playable characters. The original system cards have been sorted into these 20. All system cards can only be used while on the ground. Some of the system cards cannot be cancelled into. Others can be cancelled into after bullet moves or most melee attacks, the same class of attacks which can be cancelled into special moves. With the exception of the White Tower Sword, no system card can be cancelled into another move. System cards which cannot be cancelled into: Bomb, Pocket Watch, Substitute Doll, Grimoire, Special Parasol, Tengu Fan, Overnight Coin, Robe of the Dragon Fish, Sword of Hisou, Control Rod, Three Heavenly Drops. System cards which can be cancelled into: Magic Potion, White Tower Sword, Spirit Light, Left Holding Fan, Ibuki Gourd, Card Eating Medicine, Illness Recovery Charm, Frozen Frog, Dragon Star, Great Catfish.